The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I’ve hiked past this tree at least a dozen times and never noticed it. Finally, a few weeks ago, it caught my eye and I stopped to explore compositions. Luckily, the sky and light were cooperating on this evening and I was presented with some interesting light on The Organ, one of the prominent features of Courthouse Towers in Arches NP.
Specific Feedback
Let’s hear it all!
Technical Details
Perhaps not technical, but this tree is right at the edge of a sandstone ledge and it wasn’t possible to setup a tripod. Furthermore, achieving this composition required me to handhold the camera while leaning as far to the left as I could, all the while being poked in the ribs by a rock and simultaneously trying not to fall off the narrow ledge on which I was standing. Worth it? I think so.
Sony A7IV
Sony 24-105mm lens @ 24
ISO 250
1/100s @ f/16
Adobe Lightroom/Nik Color Efex
Critique Template
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Outstanding composition and scene. And after reading your description of the capture and your precarious position, I’m even more impressed that you did not get the hanging branch merging with the tower. Please tell me, even dangling on a cliff that you framed that, avoiding the merge… on purpose? If that branch had touched, it would have been the big nitpick.
With that, this is wonderful composition how you framed the landscape and The Organ with the tree. Beautifully balanced and captured.
The only suggestion I have would be to crop about half way down from the top edge to the top most branch. Just a little bit of empty space up there. Not a huge deal though.
Processing, colors, etc. all look spot on. Excellent!
Hi Brett,
Definitely worth it! You sound like quite the contortionist. I am impressed as my body will not twist into those positions anymore. I love the character of the tree along with the fact that it’s lean is taking me right to the Organ. The light is quite lovely both in the shaded FG and the sunlit BG. I am also enjoying the placement of those two small limbs just above the tower. This is being real nit picky considering hand holding, rock in the ribs, etc, but I could see adding just a bit of canvas to the left side. Beautifully done.
Thank you, @Lon_Overacker! I’m glad you noticed those branches just above the tower as I went to great lengths to compose this with them in this position. Several frames did have intersections because I wasn’t in a stable position but I kept shooting until I got one just right. The other issue I had was with DoF. I was quite close to the tree and it took a bit of experimentation to get the aperture and focus point juuuuust right. I like your suggestion of cropping a little off the top, too. Thank you for the thoughtful comment.
Hey @Ed_Lowe, there are very few things I’m not willing to do for a photograph! I 100% agree about allowing just a touch more room on the left. I don’t remember why I wasn’t able to, or if I just didn’t notice it, but having a touch more breathing room over there would be nice. Appreciate the comment!
You did a great job on this one, Brett! At my age, I would break things if I tried something like this.
I agree with Lon’s crop suggestion.
The light is really nice, and your exposure and the color is spot-on. I wonder if you could do a tad bit of saturation painting on the tree to bring up the lovely colors of the old wood just a little more.
-P
Man, sounds like one of you guys would have had to have processed this for me posthumously if I had tried that with my lack of coordination! Good on you to work for it!
That’s a great set up for the arch. I like the idea of a crop off the top, and in fact would go with a 4x5 format. That does cut off the branch tops (which I don’t mind doing), but it really brings a nice focus to The Organ.
Talk about reaching out and touching someone. Wow! Nice find Bret. This could be AT&T’s new slogan image. That tree is so beautifully bent over with it’s little dinosaur hands reaching out to touch the Organ. That right hand has exactly the same contours as the top of the rock. Exceptional composition. And that large boulder that the tree roots are grabbing onto are a wonderful inclusion for this image. I only wish the rock to the left of the tree trunk was not sticking out behind the tree trunk. Small thing for sure and probably not much you could do about given your awkward positioning to grab this shot without finding yourself in the bottom of a ravine. That organ rock is wonderfully lit. Your colors look spot on for my tastes and I agree with @Lon_Overacker about removing just a smidgen off the top for better balance and reduced negative space in the sky. Superb image!
Interesting image. For me it’s about the relationship between the tree and the tower. Although this would have been a good image without the tower altogether. A bit more space between the two would have been nice but given the challenging positioning it’s remarkable that you got this composition.
That was my thought as well but it works well also as is.
Bret, the framing of the tower by the tree is great. I especially like how the two downward pointing limb seem to be holding the tower down. My initial though was that a bit more space between tree and tower might be good, but since that could damage the photog it should be ignored. This is well seen and executed.
Wonderful photo. This is a favorite area of mine in Arches and I’ve never noticed the tree. Good eye! I agree with the suggestion to crop a little off the top. Also, depending on your philosophy of altering photos, it’s fairly easy to create more space between the tree limb and the top of the rocks. In Photoshop I made a selection of the top part of the tree being careful to separate the tree limb from the rock and then made a layer from that selection. Then I used Edit/Transform/Warp to bend the tree up and away from the rock. Finally I created a third layer with the changes and the bottom of the photo and used the remove tool to get rid of the remnants of the old tree limb location and smooth away the line in the sky that got created by bending just the top half of the photo. Here is a screen shot of the photoshop layers where you can see the layers, and the final result.
@Tony_Siciliano I appreciate you taking the time to rework the image to create a little more separation between The Organ and the tree limbs. The result is incredibly natural looking to my eye. I do think I prefer the original simply because the proximity of the limbs to the rock creates a sense of tension that I like, at least in my mind.
@David_Haynes I cracked up when I read your “little dinosaur hands” comment because I had the same thought when I saw the image in Lightroom for the first time! I agree about that rock on the left, which is actually a massive feature called the Tower of Babel. I contemplated cloning it out but decided, out of sheer laziness, to leave it as-is. Perhaps one day I’ll rally and give it a shot.
I am impressed as my body will not twist into those positions anymore. I love the character of the tree along with the fact that it’s lean is taking me right to the Organ. The light is quite lovely both in the shaded FG and the sunlit BG. I am also enjoying the placement of those two small limbs just above the tower. This is being real nit picky considering hand holding, rock in the ribs, etc, but I could see adding just a bit of canvas to the left side. Beautifully done.
I 100% agree about allowing just a touch more room on the left. I don’t remember why I wasn’t able to, or if I just didn’t notice it, but having a touch more breathing room over there would be nice. Appreciate the comment!
I agree about that rock on the left, which is actually a massive feature called the Tower of Babel. I contemplated cloning it out but decided, out of sheer laziness, to leave it as-is. Perhaps one day I’ll rally and give it a shot.